Water balance by country · Updated 2026-09-29
Perdas de água no Brasil: SNIS indicators, the 25% national target and the IWA water balance
How Brazilian sanitation companies and municipal utilities calculate the IWA water balance, how it maps to the SNIS indicators IN049 and IN051, and the loss-reduction target in the 2020 sanitation framework.
Calculator settings for Brazil
- Units
- Metric
- Benchmark category
- Low & middle income (standard for the best-performing state companies)
- Meter location
- At the property frontage; 1–4 m service pipe
- Supply
- Continuous in most cities; intermittent (rodízio) in the drought-prone Northeast
- Reporting
- SNIS / SINISA national indicators; ANA reference norms; state regulators (ARSESP, AGENERSA, etc.)
Brazil's national sanitation information system (SNIS, now transitioning to SINISA) publishes water-loss indicators for every reporting utility, and the 2020 legal framework for sanitation set a national goal of reducing distribution losses to 25% by 2033. National losses have stayed around 40%, so the gap is large and the water balance is the instrument for closing it — the ANA reference norms and the ABES loss-control programmes both build on the IWA method.
Mapping SNIS indicators
| SNIS indicator | In this calculator |
|---|---|
| IN049 — Índice de perdas na distribuição (%) | Water losses ÷ (SIV − water exported) — close to NRW % if unbilled use is small |
| IN051 — Perdas por ligação (L/ligação/dia) | Water losses per connection per day |
| IN013 — Perdas de faturamento (%) | NRW % of system input |
| Perdas reais / aparentes | Real losses / apparent losses |
Brazilian specifics
- Metering is widespread but meter age varies hugely; state companies with active replacement programmes see 5–8% under-registration, older fleets 10% or more.
- Fraud and illegal connections (ligações clandestinas) are a substantial apparent-loss component in many metropolitan areas; the SABESP and COPASA experience suggests survey-based estimates of 2–5% of connections in high-risk areas.
- Rodízio (rotating supply) in the Northeast and in drought years requires the supply-hours correction so that comparisons across years hold.
- Treatment is 'traditional' for ETAs; some well-supplied municipalities are 'basic'.
Typical results
IN051 values of 200–400 litres per connection per day are common, corresponding to ILIs in band C for typical pressures; the best state companies report under 150. The calculator's saved versions make it straightforward to show the trajectory toward the 2033 target year by year, in the same units SNIS uses.